Pack up the game film, extra clothes, and by golly, make sure you remember your phone and I-pad chargers. The BC Lions are getting set to embark on a nine-day Ontario journey which provides the club a chance to bond and re-group, following a disappointing 37-9 loss to the Stampeders in week nine. Next on the docket is a tilt with the 4-3-1 Ottawa REDBLACKS on Thursday. The club will then stay in our nation’s capital for four days to practice, hold regular team meetings and perhaps take in the sites at Parliament Hill before heading to Toronto to close out the road trip on Wednesday, August 31st. With only six days between the two games, the decision to stay back East was made pretty much when the schedule came out in back in February.
The Lions’ temporary headquarters will be the University of Ottawa, where they are scheduled to hold two full practices on Sunday and Monday. Practice is the easy part of the equation. As GM and head coach Wally Buono puts it, the decision to not come home comes down to one thing: time. “Sleep and preparation are the most important things,” Buono said. “It does us no good to come home and hold two practices before heading out again on Monday. Say an entire travel day is eight hours. That’s when you factor in getting to the airport, the flight, de-planing and getting to the hotel. If you do that twice, that adds up to about 18 or 19 hours, a lot of sunlight and rest lost.”
With football coaches working pretty much around the clock, you can bet this approach is also beneficial to Buono’s staff who will be able to prepare for Toronto from the comfort of their meeting and hotel rooms, as opposed to trying to cram their work in on another four-and-a-half hour plane ride.
This  will be the first time the Leos play two straight regular season games in the Eastern time zone since 2004 when they split contests against the Argos and Alouettes in mid-October. The win in Montreal locked up first place in the West and the club’s first home playoff game since 1999. That trip was also the last time Buono and company stayed on the road in between games.
For the current players, a few extra days away from home is a nice change in pace to their long schedule. The chances for downtime will be few and far between, but you know they will take advantage of being together for more than a week and use it as motivation to get back in the win column. “We have a great bond as a team already,” said cornerback Ronnie Yell. “After a 14-hour delay coming home from Montreal, this is nothing new. It will just be another training camp bonding with the guys. It will be fun.”
Jonathon Jennings is looking forward to his first extended regular season road trip, but the main focus is on turning the tide. “That’ll be a very cool thing as long as we’re winning,” said the Lions’ starting pivot. “We gotta make sure we’re taking care of business. That’s what it for, a business trip and we’re looking forward to it.”
On any given CFL season, the CFL schedule provides its share of twists and turns. In some cases, teams will have short weeks with little time to prepare between games. The most famous example is the Stampeders and Eskimos Labour Day home and home series, where the Alberta Rivals traditionally play each other four or five days apart. Clubs will also experience longer layovers, such as the Argonauts who are in the midst of an eleven-day break before the Lions invade BMO Field. They will, theoretically, play twice in week eleven with their annual Labour Day match up in Hamilton taking place five days later. After this upcoming nine-day excursion, the Lions will have visited every Eastern city and only have three of their final eight regular season contests away from BC Place. Should the results be favourable in the next two weeks, it could provide a huge advantage in what is expected to be a tight race in the West. Buono, as you would expect, isn’t ready to go down that road yet.
“We better not be thinking about post-Labour Day, just be thinking about Thursday night,” the CFL’s all-time wins leader said. “We gotta be focussed on the task at hand. They ( Ottawa) played probably as poorly as we played (last week) and they were at home. For both teams, this is a big game. Let’s not worry about Toronto, let’s not worry about post East Division, let’s just worry about Ottawa.”
You’re only as good as your last game. It’s the mindset the Lions have been going with, and it’s a huge reason they are in a position to be 6-3 at the halfway point of 2016. Charge your devices. It’s going to be a fun ride.
Matt Baker: mbaker@bclions.com